Briefs

Thai palm, rubber, and furniture enterprises, mainly in the southern provinces, have been encouraged to start businesses and grow crops in Myanmar under its government’s policy to allocate several million rai of land for farming concessions.

After leading a group of enterprises from Trang province to three cities in Myanmar recently, Phongphan Chearviriyaphan, deputy director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said plenty of opportunities were waiting in the neighbouring country under Asean integration.

Myanmar recently announced that it would allocate several million rai of land in Tanintharyi (Tao Si) Region near the Thai border for growing economic crops.

"Rubber and palm fruit are two potential products for Thai investors to grow in Myanmar as the government has focused on these economic crops, while the crops are in high demand in the world market and will command higher prices," she said.

Rice overstock feared

Traders have urged the government to release rice from its stocks as soon as possible to prevent overstocking and high losses to the state.

A rice-trader source said the government would soon face overstocking problems, as the harvest season for the main crop will start in October. The government now holds more than 9 million tonnes of rice in its stockpile.

The source said the government could lose Bt3,000-Bt4,000 a tonne from selling its rice stockpile as the current market price is much lower than the pledging price. The market price for white paddy is at Bt11,000 a tonne, while the pledging price is at Bt15,000.

Tyre plant for Rayong

Ling Long Tyres (Thailand) Co, one of the world’s top 20 tyre manufacturers from China, plans to invest Bt3.5 billion to set up a factory to produce radial tyres for passenger cars and pickup trucks in Thailand.

Wang Feng, president of Shandong Linglong Tyres, said the company had purchased 306.32 rai (49 hectares) in Hemaraj Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate in Rayong province for its new manufacturing facility. Construction of the plant will start next January and should be completed by January 2014. It expects to begin production in June 2014, at a capacity of 2 million pieces per year.